586 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



of encampment on the previous night, his party actually killed at one spot eight hippo- 

 potamuses, and saw many more. In the same river there were likewise crocodiles. Of 

 course it was a case quite extraordinary to see so many great animals crowded together ; 

 but it evidently proves that they must exist in great numbers. Dr. Smith describes the 

 country passed through that day as being thinly covered with grass, and bushes about 

 four feet high, and still more thinly with mimosa trees. The waggons were not prevented 

 travelling in a nearly straight line." 



Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the South African and the 

 South American vegetation ; the former meagre, the latter exuberant to excess : yet, 

 comparing together the weight of two of the largest species of herbivorous animals in 

 each, the ratio of the scantily pastured African, to the richly pastured American quadrupeds, 

 is as twenty-four to one. It is abundantly evident, therefore, that there is no close 

 relation between the bulk of animals and the amount of vegetation in the countries 

 which they inhabit ; and that common ideas, respecting the quantity of food which a large 

 quadruped requires for its support, are greatly exaggerated. The mention of the camel, an 

 animal of the larger class, instantly brings the desert to our remembrance, his native 

 region. This fact has an important bearing upon geological points ; for it shows that the 

 remains of large mammalia in the European tertiary strata, with those of the Rhinoceroses 

 discovered in the Siberian steppes, do not necessarily require the supposition that a 

 vegetation bearing the character of tropical luxuriance was coincident with their living 

 existence, and that a change of climate, from heat to cold, occasioned by violent 

 catastrophes has occurred, accounting for the comparatively waste and sterile aspect of 

 sites presumed to have been clothed with vegetable richness at a former epoch. There 

 may have, and no doubt there has, been a great change of climate in the northern region 

 of the globe ; but it is fallacious to argue it on the ground of a tropical vegetation being 

 required to sustain the mighty quadrupeds that once occupied the district. 



A comparison between the quadrupeds of the Old and New Worlds is in every point 

 strikingly in favour of the former. Not only has the western continent no animals of 

 such giant bulk as those of the eastern, but no examples of such high organisation, such 

 power and courage, as the African lion and th% Asiatic tiger display. Buffon's remark 

 must indeed be considerably modified, respecting the cowardice of the American feline race ; 

 for the jaguar of the woods about the Amazon, when attacked by man, will not hesitate 

 to accept his challenge, will even become the assailant, nor shrink from an encounter 

 against the greatest odds. The following passages from the writings of Humboldt show 

 that this Transatlantic animal is not to be despised : " The night was gloomy ; the 

 Devil's Wall and its denticulated rocks appeared from time to time at a distance, 

 illuminated by the burning of the savannahs, or wrapped in ruddy smoke. At the spot 

 where the bushes were the thickest, our horses were frightened by the yell of an animal 

 that seemed to follow us closely. It was a large jaguar, that had roamed for three years 

 among these mountains. He had constantly escaped the pursuit of the boldest hunters, 

 and had carried off horses and mules from the midst of enclosures ; but, having no want 

 of food, had not yet attacked men. The negro who conducted us uttered wild cries. 

 He thought he should frighten the jaguar; but these means were of course without effect. 

 The jaguar, like the wolf of Europe, follows travellers even when he will not attack them ; 

 the wolf in the open fields and in unsheltered places, the jaguar skirting the road, and 

 appearing only at intervals between the bushes." The same illustrious observer also 

 remarks, " Near the Joval, nature assumes an awful and savage aspect. We there 

 saw the largest jaguar we had ever met with. The natives themselves were astonished 

 at its prodigious length, which surpassed that of all the tigers of India I had seen in 

 the collections of Europe." Still, these were extraordinary specimens of the race, and 



